This invention relates to musical instruments and particularly to key structures for tuning stringed instruments. The tuning keys are situated in the head of an instrument and receive the strings of the instrument, the strings being variously wound upon the keys to desired tautnesses during tuning of the instrument. The violin and viola and related instruments have peg boxes, situated at the end of the neck of each instrument, for receiving the tuning keys of the instruments.
Peg boxes typically have a pair of parallel sides or cheeks joined at one end by a cross member, and having therebetween a hollowed out space or mortise. By using reamer tools, tapered apertures are formed through the cheeks for receiving the tuning pegs. The pegs are typically wooden and tapered and are wedged into the apertures in the cheeks. Strings are held taut by the friction of the pegs against the walls of the apertures. Much time and effort is involved in forming the tapered apertures and pegs such that a proper fit is achieved. The tapered pegs also are subject to slippage and to wear. The pegs may be wedged too tightly such that the peg box eventually is cracked, or the pegs may be too loosely fitted and therefore pop out of the peg box. Adjustment of the string is also difficult for, in turning the peg, frictional forces must be overcome as well as the pull of the string being tightened.
Other types of tuning keys have been developed which are not supported by both cheeks of a peg box. These keys are affixed to only one cheek of a peg box, the keys passing through an aperture in the cheek and having structure which clamps the cheek or having special insert structure within the aperture of the cheek for receiving the key. The clamping and insert structures are complex and cumbersome and do not provide the best support for the tuning keys.